Apple will introduce several major initiatives to ready its retail stores for the Apple Watch’s launch in April, according to sources briefed on the upcoming changes. Starting on April 10th, Apple will allocate 15 minutes per customer for in-store try-on appointments, using 10 or more try-on stations to manage what’s expected to be a steady flow of customers interested in having hands-on time with the Watch. While customers will not necessarily be required to have an appointment, they will be time-limited and guided during the hands-on experience. Additionally, they will be given the opportunity to place a reservation at the time of try-on for a particular model, and make a follow-up appointment to pick the watch up during the April 24th launch date. Stores will also have launch day stock for walk-in appointments.

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Each Apple Store will be provided with a special-hands on table filled with Apple Watch demo units, as Apple announced at its keynote earlier this month. Most stores will be provided one table with at least 10 surrounding Apple Watch try-on stations, while some Apple Stores will be given more tables to meet demand. Apple Stores will begin setting up the Apple Watch tables on April 9th and 10th during special overnight sessions for employees. Employees will also begin a few hours of more extensive Apple Watch training in the coming days, a follow-up to secretive training some employees received before the Spring Forward event at locations in Cupertino, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta.

To offer more personalized attention for certain Apple Watch customers, Apple will split its retail staff into four “zones” when hands-on trials and sales begin. The first set of retail employees will be stationed at the Apple Watch try-on areas to assist customers in trying on the aluminum Apple Watch Sport or stainless steel Apple Watch. A second zone is for sales, and will include two lines: one for people who know exactly which Apple Watch they want to purchase, and another for those who still are undecided about the right watch casing and band choice. The third group of employees will answer general questions about the Watch’s functionality and explain features.

Finally, a special fourth group of employees will be dedicated to assisting buyers of the gold Apple Watch Edition models. This group of employees will be made up of “Experts,” Apple Store employees who have worked at the company for an extensive period of time and have completed extra customer service training. A pair of “Experts” from each Apple Store in the Apple Watch launch countries were taught additional sales methods and customer service techniques for the Apple Watch Edition at the aforementioned February training sessions. The Apple Watch Edition starts at $10,000 and will be sold in limited quantities at select Apple Store locations.

During the preview sessions beginning on April 10th, between 75% and 90% of store retail staff will be allocated to assisting customers with the Apple Watch. The amount of employees allocated to Apple Watch sales will differ daily based on store Apple Watch inventory numbers, according to the sources. Apple has also considered utilizing the same new text-message based appointments system as its Genius Bar to organize Apple Watch try-on appointments. This would allow a person without a pre-scheduled time to receive a text message as a walk-in appointment when there is time for them to view the Watch. However, it is not yet confirmed if Apple will use this approach from the beginning for the Watch.

With the Apple Watch’s launch approaching, Apple has already begun promoting the device in stores with large banners with images similar to those on Apple’s website and in a recent issue of Vogue magazine. While these details provide insight into how Apple Store Watch sales will be structured, we also previously reported on Apple’s sales pitch for the device. According to sources, Apple will utilize a soft-shell sales approach that focuses on the device’s three key features (Health & Fitness, Communicating, and Timekeeping), bands and accessories, and iPhone hardware upgrades. Apple, as soon as next week, will launch a new trade-in program for Android users to more easily upgrade to iPhones compatible with the Apple Watch.

So there is a new position of “Apple Store snob” (The Edition “specialists”).

I thought the latest idea was to make the store seem more accessible for regular folks being as they have decided to stop with the whole “Apple Genius” thing. If some tiny percentage of folks found *that* offensive, the new Apple Store Snob position will enrage them no end.

It’s nice to see that Apple is taking watch fit seriously, but a few of us have yeti wrists in excess of 220mm. I’m 6’7 and built like a Slavic sh*thouse so it’s not THAT odd.

I’m used to having trouble finding bands that fit – but there’s no reason not to accommodate me with the link bracelet. Hopefully Apple’s ‘jewellery store’-esque approach to the Watch will mean they carry spare links which can be purchased for the link bracelet, without going to the extraordinarily wasteful expense of having to buy two of them.

I’ve never had to buy two bracelets for a TAG, for example. There are always spares available. The difference is, Apple doesn’t expect to keep their bracelets in service for 10 or 15 years. I hope this is not an area in which they default to “sorry, can’t help you, it’s just what’s in the box”… that would expose the charade and ruin my day.

If they can’t accommodate me, I’ll be forced to bargain with smaller men who don’t need their spare links. Perhaps on eBay. That won’t make me feel very special.

Depending on the quality tier, I don’t mind an aftermarket band. Not a cheap $70 band, but maybe a $200 one. Apple’s band with the push-button link removal is incredibly over-engineered and pointlessly expensive. Nobody’s wrist changes size from week to week, that they need push-button link removal.

So, that’s certainly an option, but given no other band fits, it’s a risk to purchase a watch at all, hoping for a suitable band which may never come, or might come only months later.

I’m still hoping Apple has the foresight to cater for this — I’ll be at my local Apple store on April 10 to encourage them to find a solution by April 24.

Re: “Apple’s band with the push-button link removal is incredibly over-engineered”

Indeed it is – but it was clearly designed to allow the owner to do his/her adjusting for size.

As a now retired watch repairer I know that band length adjustment ideally needs certain tools not easily available to the casual user – a band-pin extraction device is one needed tool.

It is all too easy to damage the surface finish on a nice band by owner attempts with screwdrivers. And its safest to take the band completely off the watch to sort out the band length – easy with the Apple watch with its slide-out band location.

Exactly this…I’m at 224 or 225mm I think…and I really want that space black link bracelet. I’ll be looking for 3rd party solutions as well. I’m going to try on the Milanese Loop too, and see, since it’s magnetic all the way through, if I can just have it ‘fit’ with less room left at the end.

For those who are worried about the size of the band, check out Click. They just went on Kickstarter. They make something that allows you to put any 21 or 22, I believe, watch link on the Apple Watch! You can pledge as low as $10 and get one adapter. I am going to do it. You never know, it could work.

The Milanese loop seems to top out at 200mm which just happens to be very close to my wrist (I believe I’m about 198-199). I’m hoping it still fits cause that’s the one I’m looking at. That and the leather loop.

Unfortunately extra links don’t make sense with the link bracelet. Each link is unique, tapering from a wide band at the watch to a thin band by the latch. Extra links would have nowhere to fit, as each link is uniquely suited for one position along the band.

It’s true somewhat but not totally.
You can take out some links for sizing the band and still have the other links fit, so it’s not like every single link is unique. Otherwise you would not be able to size the band at all.

They’re only unique by where it connects to the watch, but towards the latch there are a bunch of links that are all the same size so they can be removed to size the band. You should be able to easily put in a bunch more links in there as long as they have extra links available.

That’s not how link bracelets work. You have to be able to size them, therefore the removable links are not tapered. Those are the ones closest to the clasp — the ones with the buttons in them. The ones closer to the watch face however, are tapered and not removable.

Post something to craigslist/facebook/etc. about it. If you can finder a partner who also plans on purchasing the steel band with thinner wrists, you could pay for links that they would be wasting anyway. I’m guessing that since they can be put together by hand they should be able to grow to accommodate.

That’s essentially the plan. There’s a guy who’s made a strap exchange website called strapswap(dot)com for elastomer bands, and I’ve been chatting with him on Reddit about including an option for link bracelets as well.

It’s an interesting idea. Since the sport watches come with two elastomer bands, his site allows people to exchange the band that doesn’t fit, for one in their size but of a different colour. Good idea. Free service too.

I’ve been researching other communities where I can post, as well as craigslist — but ideally I’d like to walk out of the store with a band that fits otherwise it’s a thousand dollar pocket watch until I can sort out some links. :)

Why would you need to try on the Apple Watch Edition if you DO NOT plan on purchasing? That would be wasting people’s time and also taking time/appointments away from people who do plan on purchasing one.

daitenshe - 3 years ago

Do you think the average customer really considers the time of the employees/other customers when they’re shopping? People would want to try it on just to take selfies with it so they can show all their friends. I’m sure there will be some sort of process involved to try on the edition beyond just making an appointment

That is great. I know I want the one with the largest band. Lucky for me, it was the one I liked anyway. So, all I will have to do is try it on. My band now is 9.3 inches. The one from Apple is like 8.5, with the watch being like 1.6. So, I believe the watch will fit. Then, I can just go over and buy the thing. Though, this could make things take a lot more time. I can imagine there will be 100 people there, who have no plan on buying, but just want to try one on. It is those people who will waste time. Oh well. Good times.

Well, here is why I thought they only counted the band. One, that is the normal thing with watch band length. You do not count the watch, just the band from end to end. I just looked on the Apple site. For the black leather band, it says this “Band fits 145-215mm wrists.” The fact that it specifically says band, makes me think that they do not add the watch into the size. The band for the smaller watch says “Band fits 125-200mm wrists.” Again, that is just for the band. I can not be sure the size of the watches themselves, but I do not believe just the watch head would make that much of a difference. I could be seeing thing wrong. haha Would not be the first time.

Plus, you know other companies will make bands. I backed a company on Kickstarter called Click. They are making something that allows you to put any band, of a certain width, to the watch. Very low price to get one adapter. Seems cool to me.

I wonder if you’re reading that as carefully as you could be, Joshua. Please note, it doesn’t say “this band is is 215mm long. It says it fits a wrist that size.

It can’t possibly fit a wrist of any size without the watch… so what would be the point in fitting a wrist larger than the specified wrist it claims to fit?

The reason other 3rd party band makers specify band length, instead of wrist size, is that they can’t know which watch you’re intending to place their 3rd party band onto. Apple does know, and so doesn’t specify band length, but wrist size.

Well, that was flew right by me. haha That kind of sucks. I mean, I am sure a lot of people have larger wrists. But, as I said, I have the click thing ordered. I hope that works out well. Plus, as I think I also said, I am sure there will be other companies making bands. I wrote to one and asked if they could make an XL band. They said they would send the question to their team. Thank you for clearing that up. haha Peace!

Time to sell all your Apple Stock, Apple has reached that point where they are no longer relevant, not just because of a watch that costs 10k but because of an IPhone that fails to load music properly.